Step eleven!

We've entered the two-week wait. In almost all of the steps of the adoption process, the timetable is variable. It can take two months (like this time) or six months (like last time) to complete a home study. It can take a few days (like 21) or a lot of days (like 160) to get a Letter of Approval from the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA). But step eleven on the chart I posted a few weeks ago always takes ten business days. Step eleven is pre-approval for Eli's immigrant visa, and it is being processed at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China (which is also where we will spend the last half of our trip). Our paperwork was dropped off on Wednesday, January 23rd and will be picked up on Wednesday, February 6th and overnighted to the CCCWA in Beijing that day (which is step 12). We will be waiting for our official travel approval (which is issued from the CCCWA) when Chinese New Year starts on February 9th. While the Article 5 wait is always 10 business days, the Travel Approval wait is highly variable. I've heard of people getting theirs in 3-4 days, and others waiting a month. Last time we waited 16 days. This time we know that the CCCWA will be closed for a week for Chinese New Year, so I'm expecting it to take about three weeks. If the approval isn't here by March 1st, I may have to place another moratorium on all friend calls until I get the call from my agency. We hope to leave March 13th or 20th (or maybe sooner if we're blessed with a quick travel approval) but we won't know any more than we know right now until we get the all-important phone call.